


Dear and Wolves

by Ash_2_Otaku



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games), Red Dead Redemption 2
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 17:26:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18451214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ash_2_Otaku/pseuds/Ash_2_Otaku
Summary: There are some spoilers in here, so you may wanna wait until you've finished the game to read it.





	Dear and Wolves

**Author's Note:**

> There are some spoilers in here, so you may wanna wait until you've finished the game to read it.

Arthur's condition had been getting worse with each passing day. The gang had finally noticed and managed to get him to a doctor for rest and treatment, but it was too late. The doctor told them it would only be a matter of days, maybe even hours, until he passed; but they all failed to believe it, hoping and praying that the notoriously hardheaded Arthur Morgan would be stubborn enough to pull through.

Arthur, not being one to believe in things like "devine intervention" and miracles, didn't share their false hope. No matter how many times they insisted he would pull through, he kept insisting they let him go ahead and say his final goodbyes while he still had a bit of time left. They were all reluctant about it, until the doctor reminded them of how little time they would really have left with Arthur if their miracle never came. Dutch finally gave in, granting Arthur his request and calling each of the gang's members into Arthur's room as he asked for them. 

The goodbyes started out simple and easy. Arthur had made peace with his death, and he didn't have much unfinished business with anyone. For most of the members, it was an easy, though tear filled, goodbye. However, soon all that was left was Abigail, Jack, and John. For some reason John would never quite understand, Arthur had asked to see the three of them together.

John just watched as the heartbreaking scene in front of him play out as Abigail clung to Arthur, trying to make up for all of the grudges she had held, all of the mistakes she had made, and all of the bad history between them in all those years in just a few minutes. Arthur just held her close, assuring her it was all okay and occasionally apologizing himself. After thoroughly reassuring her that all was forgiven, he planted a small kiss on her forehead and sent the sobbing woman over to a seat beside Dutch, who patted her arm reassuringly as they watched Arthur pick up Jack. 

This farewell was the hardest for John to watch, and he knew it must have hurt Abigail and Dutch just as much. Not much was said between them, Arthur just held his cherished son close, occasionally whispering to the small boy how he wished they could go fishing again. Jack, somewhat understanding what Arthur's passing would mean, just nodded and cried into the man's chest, his small body shaking in Arthur's arms. John knew that even though Jack had never gotten to know Arthur as his father, he would feel the loss just as much as any young boy did when losing his father. 

After a sobbing Abigail managed to pry a crying Jack away from Arthur and Dutch escorted them both out, it was John's turn to say goodbye, and he had never been less prepared for anything in his life.

As he sat down in a chair beside Arthur's bed, Arthur smiled at him.

"Now it's your turn to cry like a baby Marston."

"Guess it is isn't it. You've managed to reduce everyone else in this gang of 'ruthless savages' to tears with your heartfelt final farewells, but I'm not gonna be so easy to break you know."

"I know, 'cause you're just as tough as they come aren't you Marston? You know though, Mr.Cold blooded killer, your gonna miss me when I'm gone."

"Maybe I will, but who said you were aloud to go and die on me now? I thought you still had some good years left in you old man."

Arthur smiled, "I guess for once you idiots were right."

John frowned. How had such a stubborn, hotheaded man given up on himself so easily? "You know there's still a good chance you could pull through, right. Dutch says...."

"Dutch says a lot of things, most of which happens to be hopeful ramblings of miracles and things that could only happen in a better world, a world we don't live in. We both know I don't have much time left, and ignoring it until the last minute will just make it hurt worse, believe me."

"Okay, fine, what do you wanna say to me before you go?"

Arthur looked off towards the door, the door to the room where Abigail and Jack still sit crying. "Take good care of them for me John."

"I can't do that, they need you, not me."

"No, they need you."

"Come on, you saw the way they clung to you."

"Everyone clings to a dying man. It's part of the need to make things right before they leave you forever, closure."

"The boy needs to know his real father Arthur."

"Then tell him. But first leave behind the killing, make a life for the three of you, marry Abigail and make a decent husband for her, be a good father to Jack and raise him so he succeeds and doesn't have to take the same path we did in life. When he's grown tell him all about his real father, and make sure he doesn't forget me."

"He wouldn't forget you Arthur, you just saw it, the boy loves you, they both love you."

"They love you too John."

"That's not the point though, you can't just ask me to take you're family Arthur."

"Sure I can, that's the good thing about being in my position; see a dying man can ask anything as his last request and for once y'all actually gotta listen to me. And if you still can't bring yourself to take them, consider them a parting gift, from me to you."

"A parting gift, huh?" John shook his head "So you're telling me you've just accepted the fact that any minute now, you're gonna die."

"Pretty much."

"How could you just accept something like that?"

"Well it's easy, I haven't got a choice. It's not like I can change it, at least this way I get to leave with everything settled. Plus it's not all bad, Hosea and those boys'll be waiting for me, and I can't help but think it'll be the golden gates they're waiting at and not the firey ones."

John smiled. "I'm sure it will be."

Arthur smiled up at the ceiling. "Kieren won't know what to do when he sees me, and for once it'll be nice to hear Sean run his big mouth. I'm excited to see how Lenny's doing, he was always a good kid, had potential. Then Hosea, him I can't wait to see. I'll have to hug him and then beat him up for getting himself killed. I'll have to do both twice actually, once for me and once for Dutch."

They both just sat there for a moment, not quite sure what to say. It was John who broke the silence.

"Well Morgan, if you're so set on dying, then I guess I'll have to give you my parting gift too."

"Oh yeah? And what would that be?"

"My final, and complete opinion of you."

"Oh boy, get it over with Marston."

"Okay, I will. You are an annoying, stubborn, small-minded, hotheaded man, you always complain, you doubt everyone, you hate the world and everyone in it, you won't let any one help you, and you only care about your self...."

"Yep, heard all that before, got anything new?"

"As a matter of fact I do, if you'd shut up for two seconds. Geez, most talkative dying man I've ever met. As I was saying, despite what a pleasure you are to be around...," Arthur rolled his eyes, "I have somehow managed to fall completely in love with you Arthur Morgan."

Arthur smiled, taking John's hand in his. "If  I'm gonna be honest, I fell in love with you a long time ago John Marston."

They sat in silence for a while, just enjoying finally sharing the feelings they had both kept hidden for so long. Then John remembered the situation they were in.

"Why did we have to make this revelation now. I'll spend the rest of my life wondering what could have been if I had confessed earlier and ended up with the man I love."

"Yeah, I'll be missing you all those years 'till I'll see you again. But I will see you again, be sure of that, just promise me it won't be until at least fifty or sixty years from now, when you've lived a full live and are done with this world."

"I promise, I'll live a good, long life first, and I'll take good care of them for you."

Arthur looked up at him with gratitude showing in his eyes. "Thanks, John. Now there's just one last thing I need to do and I'll have no more regrets on this Earth."

"And what's that."

"This." Arthur pulled John down and gently kissed him.

Arthur's lips were already as cold as a corpse, and John could taste Arthur's blood, left over from his many previous coughing fits; however, it was still the best kiss he had ever had and he wished it would never have to end. It felt like that moment lasted for an eternity, but it must have only been minute before Arthur abruptly pulled away, his body jerking as he went into what would be his last coughing fit. He coughed and jerked for a good twenty minutes, John holding his hand the whole time, before he finally released his last breath and fell back against the pillows in a lifeless heap. 

Arthur's eyes were closed and his mouth was only opened slightly. It was easy for John to convince himself that he was only sleeping, but as he held the man's lifeless hand, feeling the obvious lack of a pulse in his wrist, he knew Arthur was gone.

He broke the news to the gang. They buried Arthur in Horseshoe beside Hosea, leaving a plot on Arthur's other side so that Dutch could eventually rest with his family.

John spent the next few years living quietly with the family Arthur had left for him. Everyday he thought of Arthur, and everyday Jack looked more and more like his father until he looked exactly like the boy in the pictures of Abigail and Arthur together as teenagers, the pictures she still kept in a small table beside her bed. Things were going alright for the three of them, John felt he was doing good with his friend's dying wish.

However, when Dutch was finally driven over the edge with grief from the back to back deaths of his lover and then his son, John had to be the one to hunt him down. 

After he found Dutch and the face of between them, in which Dutch threw himself off a cliff while facing certain death, John didn't go straight back to his family. He put Dutch's body on the back of his horse. The trip to Horseshoe from Tall Trees was a long one, but a trip him and Dutch had made together once before. He barried Dutch in his plot beside Arthur and Hosea. He cleaned off the other tombstones and talked to Arthur for a bit. He told him of how Abigail was doing, how Jack had grown. He talked of going after the other gang members and how some of them would be visiting Arthur soon. He talked of how he had been recently and apologized for not coming by more, promising to bring Jack and Abigail by next time, and to tell Jack about his real father as soon as he saw him next.

John talked to Arthur for hours and somehow he felt that Arthur was listening. It was just a feeling at first, but what happened next made him sure.

When he looked up from the grave, a small brown faun was standing in front of him. The faun just stared at him for a while, and then touched its head to his. As it did John swore he heard Arthur's voice in his head. "You're doing good Marston. Make sure my family knows I love them, and remember I loved you too."

"We'll always know that Arthur, all three if us."

He gently pet the faun's neck before it run off to join two bucks waiting a little bit off. And it may have just been a trick of the light, but John could have sworn he saw Dutch next to the dears, his arm wrapped around Hosea as Arthur's spirit ran alongside the faun up to them. They all three waved at John as the walked away together with the three dear, toward greener pastures. And John knew that it wouldn't be long until he was walking away with them.


End file.
